under lying

In 2015 the world saw Pluto in focus and in (false) color for the first time. How strange this was.

Previous to the image from the New Horizons spacecraft, our best tools could only give us a several-pixel-wide blur of this distant dwarf planet. Seeing Pluto as a real object for the first time felt intensely novel.

Many of the space images we see are so distant from us that the light left its source before the heavy atoms forming our planet were generated inside of a massive supernova from a star born much nearer to the beginning of this universe. The universe we see now is either changed or gone.

I am investigating the visual links between imaging devices (which allow us to conceptualize our world) and the actual mysterious components of, and occurrences in our universe. What intrigues me most is the positive reinforcement that happens when we are looking for new information—the fact that when we look deeper into the universe, and therefore further back in time, we are forced to better understand and exploit materials that have existed on our planet for billions of years to create new devices to see.

The images that emerge from this process are results (but really only hints of) what it means to attempt an understanding.

Some images created through sources in the public domain. Contact Eric for specifics.